M R Venkatesh wins 68th CM Birthday lightning chess tournament

M R Venkatesh wins 68th CM Birthday lightning chess tournament
By RR Vasudevan

Grandmaster  M R Venkatesh (BPCL), with 9/9 score, emerged the champion in the lightning chess tournament held as a part of the 68th birthday celebrations of “thanga tharagai” puratchi thalavi AMMA at Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Chennai here today.

Champion M R Venkatesh received a cash award of Rs 68000, along with the handsome winner’s trophy from the Honorable Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare Dr S Sundararaj. It is the second blitz title for Venkatesh who had won this title in the 2013 edition.

International Master N R Vignesh took the second place with 8.5 points, while final round loser C Sai Vishwesh finished third with a better tie-break at 8.0 points.

Cash prizes to the tune of Rs. 214000 (Rupees Two lakhs fourteen thousand only) were distributed by Honorable Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare Dr S Sundararaj.Present in the dais were Shri S R Vijayakumar, MP, Shri JCD Prabhakar, Chairman, SIDCO,  Shri V Hariharan, General Secretary, Tamil State Chess Association, Shri S Ganesan, Patron, TNSCA and Shri B Murugavel, Vice President, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.

The tournament which attracted 554 entries including two Grandmasters, six International Masters and 13 FIDE titled players, was inaugurated earlier today by Smt S Gokula Indira, Honorable Minister for Handlooms and Textile, in the presence of Shri S R Vijayakumar, MP, Shri JCD Prabhakar, Chairman, SIDCO,  Shri V Hariharan, General Secretary, Tamil State Chess Association and Shri K S Srinivasan, Ex-MLA.

Final Placings : 1 M R Venkatesh 9.0, 2 N R Vignesh 8.5, 3-7 Sai Vishwesh C, Karthikeyan Murali, Arjun Kalyan, Praveen Kumar C, Harshavardhan G B 8.0, 8-10 Ramnath Bhuvanesh R, Akash PC Iyer, Prajesh R 7.5 pts